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Separating the Facts from the Sales Propaganda on Chicken Feeders and Other Poultry Raising Equipment

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Chicken Condo Rodent-Resistant Automatic Chicken Feeder

Selling at Chicken Condo site for $119.00

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The Chicken Condo treadle feeder is a retrofitted Chow Hound automatic dog feeder. The box is quite sturdy and well made and the added treadle system is actually one of the better designs as it has a rudimentary counterweight system made with a long bolt and some heavy hex nuts that can be taken off to adjust sensitivity and with a longer bolt additional hex nuts could be added.

The door has a small lip that projects out that adds some level of water protection except for the areas at the right and left of the bottom of the door which have gaps that would allow rain running down the door to leak into the feeder.

The treadle is wide and long, great for smaller birds and other poultry like ducks, but aw we have seen before not very good at keeping vermin out of the chicken feed.

While the angle iron treadle bars are great the door axle and linkage that opens the door are not thought out well at all. The door axle is the commonly used wire axle, sufficient for a top feed lid but it isn’t going to hold up for long if the feeder is opened hundreds of times a day. The linkage is complicated, an angle bracket bolted to the front of the door, a fairly sturdy looking metal bar linking the angle bracket to the treadle bar that is fastened at each end using long bolts and a lock washer. A lot could go wrong with this design as it gets a lot of use.

CoopsNmore style feeder

The Chicken Condo treadle feeder is a nearly identical clone to a feeder once sold by CoopsNmore, which appears to have been pulled from the market after many complaints online saying that mice and rats could push the door open. While it does have a counterweight system that could be modified to hold enough weight to defeat rats and mice that wide and close in treadle step is going to be a problem.

Something other than hex nuts will be needed as the counterweight has to first balance out the sturdy and stiff angle iron and plywood treadle step, then have enough weight that a one pound or pound and a half rat or squirrel couldn’t trip the treadle using weight alone. The lack of a spring loaded door means that vermin could easily push the door open, however a spring could be added by drilling an additional hole in that angle bracket. The forward swinging lid isn’t optimal as the lid would be in the way while trying to pour a fifty pound bag of feed into the hopper. The feeder is 11″ L x 12″ W x 23″ H and the website says it holds 35 pounds although similar sized feeders claim around 26 pounds capacity.

Reviews for the Chicken Condo Rat-Resistant Automatic Chicken Feeder are nearly non existent. There is one mention of the product in a forum on backyardchickens.com by a guy that obviously has a passion for his chickens and has been trying several feeders. The lack of reviews is either a super cautious manufacturer not wanting negative reviews to impact his sales or a sign of a very limited amount of the feeder out in consumer’s hands. The manufacturer’s own Youtube video had the comments disabled so my guess is that since the feeder is a clone of the discontinued CoopsNmore feeder they probably don’t want online reviews on the product.

Reviews:

WE HAVE TWO OF THESE CHICKEN CONDOS TREADLE FEEDERS THAT COME IN ONLY ONE SIZE (20-LB CAPACITY) BUT HAVE THE ADVANTAGE OF COMING “FULLY” ASSEMBLED WITH NO SCREWS OR BOLTS TO HAVE TO PUT TOGETHER!!! ONE OF THESE TREADLE FEEDERS HAS ALREADY GOT ONE PARTIALLY CHIPPED CLEAT ON THE TREADLE WHICH WE ARE NOT USING AT THE MOMENT. HATE WHEN THINGS FALL APART BEFORE THE CHICKEN HAS EVEN USED IT. AGAIN, THESE HAVE THE ADVANTAGE BEING “FULLY” ASSEMBLED WITH NO ADDED DIY. ANOTHER NICE THING IS THAT THE CHICKEN DOESN’T HAVE TO STICK HER HEAD WAY INSIDE THE FEEDER TO EAT.